Maui lei festival part of May Day, Sunday

Keauhou, Cazimero Headline Hawaiian Airlines May Day 2022

A statewide telecast from Oʻahu as well as live festivities on Maui will take place to celebrate the annual Hawaiʻi “May Day” with lei day celebration.

Award-winning artists Robert Cazimero, the group Keauhou and a host of other Hawaiian entertainers will perform at May Day 2022 on the lawn of the Bishop Museum with special live telecasts statewide.

The special event with support from Hawaiian Airlines and Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority will be broadcast Sunday, May 1, at 7 p.m. on KFVE and also via Facebook live by Kahuli Leo Le’a and partnering organizations.

Maui: Lei Day Heritage Festival, May 1

On Maui, the Bailey House Museum in Wailuku hosts a “Lei Day Heritage Festival” Sunday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event features entertainment and cultural activities.

Performers include Grammy winner George Kahumoku, the group Kūikawā, singer Jordan Soon with his band, and Adaptation Dance Theatre, also know as “ADT,” presenting a dance rooted in Wailuku.

ADT developed the dance in collaboration with a Wailuku Public Art Program called “SMALL TOWN * BIG ART.”

The Bishop Museum program on Oʻahu includes the Cazimero’s Hālau Nā Kamalei o Līlīlehua, Manu Boyd, Kainani Kahaunaele, Kamalei Kawaʻa, various hālau hula, and host, Billy V.

Since 1927, May Day has lei day as well, hosting countless kamaʻāina and malihini who joined in the annual celebration of the flower lei and all things Hawaiian.

Besides the making, wearing, and giving of lei, May Day celebrations eventually became synonymous with music, hula, crafts, and so many cultural practices.

Producer Zachary Lum said May Day will honor the ingenuity of the Hawaiian ahupua’a system of caring for the land.

“…May Day will be a celebration of our island home and the beauty we must maintain in aloha ʻāina,” said Lum, executive director of the nonprofit production organization Kahuli Leo Le’a.